Sunday, November 12, 2017

November 9, 2017 -- Former U.S. Attorney and GOP candidate for Governor, Gary Richardson, is calling on leaders at the Capitol to support his demand for audits of every state agency. Richardson earned a national reputation for aggressively prosecuting corruption during his time as a U.S Attorney.

“We were only able to prosecute those corruption cases because we had data from the audits,” Gary Richardson says. “We will never be able to solve the budget crisis in Oklahoma if we don’t have a solid handle on what the problems are. Our state leaders are like doctors trying to treat a patient without a diagnosis. Until we know the cause of the illness, which we could quickly learn from mandatory audits of state agencies, we can’t hope for a cure.”

Gary Richardson began his crusade for statewide audits when he ran for Governor in 2002.

“The financial scandals at the Health Department, Tourism Commission and Department of Agriculture should be a wake-up call to every Oklahoman,” says Richardson. “Corruption is rampant in this state and it’s up to us to put an end to it. As Governor, I would start at the top and mandate audits on the 12 state agencies with budgets of more than $50 million. And I will push for new legislation requiring audits of every single state agency, trust and authority every four years. No one, and I mean no one, should be unaccountable when spending the taxpayers’ money.“

Gary Richardson is a native Oklahoman, a former US Attorney appointed by President Reagan, and founder of a successful law firm in Tulsa.